Rex Shachath are playing only their second gig and their first on home territory (they had made their live debut a few weeks earlier at a festival in Dublin), and are celebrating the launch of their debut mini-album, the impressive ‘Sepulchral Torment’, around which the set understandably centre.

Despite the relative newness of the band itself, the various members are highly experienced and veterans of several stalwarts of the Belfast scene, such as Overoth and Condemned, and this is quickly evident, as the five members operate as a tight, destructive death metal machine: the musicianship is all exemplary, the songs are well-written and very well performed and frontman Dave is indeed a powerhouse. A very worthy debut and a band with a great future ahead of them.

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You know it has been a extremely good night when you wake up not knowing if its beer or piss squealching around inside your DMs, both your stomach and head hurt from unsuccessful attempts to avoid wayward flailing limbs and your neck feels like you should have left it at home before going out…

Well, this was one of those nights thanks to headliners The Rotted, who were making only their second appearance in Belfast – and judging on tonight’s reception it won’t be long before the Londoners are making their return to the Northern Ireland capital. As soon as they hit the stage, the place turns into a sweatbox filled with writhing bodies, the pit a seething mass throughout their 45 minute set as the quartet are brutal and non-stop in their anarchic, punk-fuelled hardcore death metal.

Vocalist Ben McCrow pauses for breath only long enough to urge the crowd to create more and more mayhem in front of him, and to dedicate the track ‘Motorbastard’ to “the greatest rock ‘n’ roll band in the world”: otherwise, the d-beat onslaught in magnificently unrelenting.

The Rotted and Rex Shacrath play Hordes Of Belial III in Dundee on September 22nd (with The Rotted, Firebrand Super Rock, Threshold Sicks and Zillah) and Ivory Blacks in Glasgow (w/ Bonesaw and Filthpact) the following evening.

The Rotted also play Format in Liverpool on September 20th and Flanagan’s Bar, Elgin (w/ Bonesaw and Filthpact) on September 21st.

Rex Shacrath’s ‘Sepulchral Torment’ is out now. Their ‘Pestilence Procession’ tour also visits: